The 56-year-old German bicycle enthusiast Peter Smolka, who set off 4 years ago from Beşiktaş Municipality’s sister city Erlangen, a southern city in Germany, with the purpose of cycling around the world and visiting all the sister cities of Erlangen, arrived in Beşiktaş after visiting 52 countries and travelling a total distance of 77.000 km. Mr. Smolka also presented the letter he brought from the Erlangen Mayor Mr. Florian Janik to the Beşiktaş Mayor Atty. Murat Hazinedar at his visit.

Peter Smolka started his journey, exactly 4 years ago, on March 28, 2013 from Erlangen, which is one of the sister cities of the Beşiktaş Municipality. Thanks to the security measures and required permissions obtained by the Beşiktaş Municipality from official authorities, he crossed the Bosphorus cycling on the first bridge, 15 Temmuz Şehitleri Köprüsü, in company with the Beşiktaş municipal police.

Visiting the Beşiktaş Mayor Atty. Murat Hazinedar in his office in Çırağan Town Hall, Peter Smolka delivered him the letter he brought from the Erlangen Mayor Florian Janik, and Mayor Hazinedar submitted Mr. Smolka a reply letter he wrote for Mr. Janik.

“It’s a pleasure for me to be here in Beşiktaş as part of my world tour ‘Tour de Friends’. Cycling in Turkey has been quite a good and comfortable experience for me. I had no problems because both the roads and the highway shoulders are broad enough for cycling.” said Smolka.

After the visit in Çırağan, Mayor Hazinedar and Peter Smolka had a small cycling tour together to Ortaköy. There they had a coffee with the great Bosphorus view, by which Mr. Smolka said he was marveled. When Peter Smolka completes his tour after visiting all the sister cities of Erlangen, he will have travelled a distance of 85,000 km in total and visited 65 countries. He is planning to arrive back in Erlangen in the fall season of 2017.

Informing the press members about the trip of Mr. Smolka, Mayor Hazinedar said; “Peter is a resident of our sister city Erlangen. It’s really nice to have him here in Beşiktaş as part of his round-the-world tour. I also had a small tour with him and cycled together. I really care about and admire personally what he is doing. Cycling is not only good for health but also an environment-friendly means of transportation, which is a very important subject for us and all the local governments everywhere in the world. His tour is very inspirational and quite didactic in this regard as well. I believe that his travelling around the whole world and publicizing all his experience through his internet blog and the media is so valuable to set a good example globally. He is also inspirational to me personally because I have plans to travel around the world, not by bicycle but by boat, after my term of office as the Mayor of Beşiktaş. Apparently he has had a great experience throughout these four years. I congratulate him on this magnificent journey.